jade.onto
Class DefaultOntology

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--jade.onto.DefaultOntology

public final class DefaultOntology

extends java.lang.Object

implements Ontology

A simple implementation of the Ontology interface. Instances of this class keeps all the ontology data in memory, and don't support an external archive format.

Author:

Giovanni Rimassa - Universita` di Parma

Fields inherited from interface jade.onto.Ontology

ANY_SLOT, ANY_TYPE, BINARY_TYPE, BOOLEAN_TYPE, BYTE_TYPE, CHARACTER_TYPE, DATE_TYPE, DOUBLE_TYPE, FLOAT_TYPE, FRAME_SLOT, INTEGER_TYPE, LONG_TYPE, M, NAME_OF_SEQUENCE_FRAME, NAME_OF_SET_FRAME, O, PRIMITIVE_SLOT, SEQUENCE_SLOT, SET_SLOT, SHORT_TYPE, STRING_TYPE

Constructor Summary

DefaultOntology()
Default constructor.

Method Summary

void	addRole(java.lang.String roleName, SlotDescriptor[] slots) Adds a new role to this ontology, without a user defined Java class to represent it.
void	addRole(java.lang.String roleName, SlotDescriptor[] slots, java.lang.Class newClass) Adds a new role to this ontology, with a user defined Java class to represent it.
void	check(Frame f) Checks whether a given frame is correct with respect to this ontology.
void	check(java.lang.Object o, java.lang.String roleName) Checks whether a given Java object is correct with respect to the given role in this ontology.
java.lang.Object	create(Frame f) Creates an object, starting from a given frame.
Frame	createFrame(java.lang.Object o, java.lang.String roleName) Creates a frame from a given Java Object representing an instance of a given role.
List	createObject(List v) Creates a List of Java objects from the given list of frame.
void	fromMetaOntologyRepresentation(AnOntology o) Initialize this ontology based on the passed meta-ontology
java.lang.String	fromSL0String(java.lang.String str) This method initialized this ontology object on the basis of its representation as an SL-0 expression.
java.lang.Class	getClassForRole(java.lang.String roleName) Provides the Java class associated with this ontological role.
java.lang.String	getRoleName(java.lang.Class c)
SlotDescriptor[]	getSlots(java.lang.String roleName) Get the descriptions for all the slots that define the structure of a given ontological role.
List	getVocabulary()
boolean	isRole(java.lang.String roleName) Checks whether a given string is the name of a role in this ontology.
void	joinOntology(Ontology o) Adds to this ontology all roles included into another ontology
AnOntology	toMetaOntologyRepresentation(java.lang.String ontologyName) Return an object representing this ontology in terms of the JADE-Meta-Ontology and that is suitable to be encoded as a String and, for instance, become the content of an ACLMessage.
java.lang.String	toSL0String(java.lang.String ontologyName) Writes the ontology represented by this Ontology object as an SL-0 expression.
java.lang.String	toString() Return a String representing this ontology Object by calling the method toSL0String() and catching any exception.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

DefaultOntology

public DefaultOntology()

Default constructor.

Method Detail

addRole

public void addRole(java.lang.String roleName,
                    SlotDescriptor[] slots)
             throws OntologyException

Adds a new role to this ontology, without a user defined Java class to represent it.

Specified by:

addRole in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.addRole(String roleName, SlotDescriptor[] slots)

addRole

public void addRole(java.lang.String roleName,
                    SlotDescriptor[] slots,
                    java.lang.Class newClass)
             throws OntologyException

Adds a new role to this ontology, with a user defined Java class to represent it.

Specified by:

addRole in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.addRole(String roleName, SlotDescriptor[] slots, Class c)

joinOntology

public void joinOntology(Ontology o)
                  throws OntologyException

Adds to this ontology all roles included into another ontology

Specified by:

joinOntology in interface Ontology

Parameters:

o - The Ontology object whose roles will be added

See Also:

Ontology.joinOntology(Ontology o)

createObject

public List createObject(List v)
                  throws OntologyException

Creates a List of Java objects from the given list of frame.

Specified by:

createObject in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.createObject(List v)

createFrame

public Frame createFrame(java.lang.Object o,
                         java.lang.String roleName)
                  throws OntologyException

Creates a frame from a given Java Object representing an instance of a given role.

Specified by:

createFrame in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.createFrame(Object o, String roleName)

check

public void check(Frame f)
           throws OntologyException

Checks whether a given frame is correct with respect to this ontology.

Specified by:

check in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.check(Frame f)

check

public void check(java.lang.Object o,
                  java.lang.String roleName)
           throws OntologyException

Checks whether a given Java object is correct with respect to the given role in this ontology.

Specified by:

check in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.check(Object o, String roleName)

isRole

public boolean isRole(java.lang.String roleName)
               throws OntologyException

Checks whether a given string is the name of a role in this ontology.

Specified by:

isRole in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.isRole(String roleName)

getSlots

public SlotDescriptor[] getSlots(java.lang.String roleName)
                          throws OntologyException

Get the descriptions for all the slots that define the structure of a given ontological role.

Specified by:

getSlots in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.getSlots(String roleName)

getRoleName

public java.lang.String getRoleName(java.lang.Class c)
                             throws OntologyException

Specified by:

getRoleName in interface Ontology

Returns:

the name of the role represented by the passed class as registered in this ontology

Throws:

OntologyException - if no role is found for this class

See Also:

Ontology.getRoleName(Class c)

getVocabulary

public List getVocabulary()

Specified by:

getVocabulary in interface Ontology

Returns:

a List including the names of all the roles in the ontology, i.e. the Vocabulary used by the ontology

See Also:

Ontology.getVocabulary()

getClassForRole

public java.lang.Class getClassForRole(java.lang.String roleName)

Provides the Java class associated with this ontological role. This class is usually the class used by the create() method to instantiate objects. A useful technique is returning an interface or an abstract class, while using concrete subclasses to create objects.

Specified by:

getClassForRole in interface Ontology

Parameters:

a - string representing the name of the ontological role

Returns:

the Java class that plays this ontological role (e.g. DFAgentDescription.class

fromSL0String

public java.lang.String fromSL0String(java.lang.String str)
                               throws Codec.CodecException,
                                      OntologyException

Description copied from interface: Ontology

This method initialized this ontology object on the basis of its representation as an SL-0 expression. This expression is based on the JADE-Meta-Ontology encoded in the package jade.onto.JADEMetaOntology

Specified by:

fromSL0String in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.fromSL0String(String)

fromMetaOntologyRepresentation

public void fromMetaOntologyRepresentation(AnOntology o)
                                    throws OntologyException

Description copied from interface: Ontology

Initialize this ontology based on the passed meta-ontology

Specified by:

fromMetaOntologyRepresentation in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.fromMetaOntologyRepresentation(AnOntology)

toString

public java.lang.String toString()

Return a String representing this ontology Object by calling the method toSL0String() and catching any exception. Notice that this method ignores the name of the ontology and, therefore, the method toSL0String() should be preferred, instead.

Overrides:

toString in class java.lang.Object

Returns:

the String representing this ontology, or null if any exception occurs.

toMetaOntologyRepresentation

public AnOntology toMetaOntologyRepresentation(java.lang.String ontologyName)

Description copied from interface: Ontology

Return an object representing this ontology in terms of the JADE-Meta-Ontology and that is suitable to be encoded as a String and, for instance, become the content of an ACLMessage.

Specified by:

toMetaOntologyRepresentation in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.toMetaOntologyRepresentation(String)

toSL0String

public java.lang.String toSL0String(java.lang.String ontologyName)
                             throws OntologyException

Writes the ontology represented by this Ontology object as an SL-0 expression.

Specified by:

toSL0String in interface Ontology

See Also:

Ontology.toSL0String(String)

create

public java.lang.Object create(Frame f)
                        throws OntologyException

Description copied from interface: Ontology

Creates an object, starting from a given frame. This method can just create the object ignoring its argument, or it can use the frame to select the concrete class to instantiate.

Specified by:

create in interface Ontology

Tags copied from interface: Ontology

Parameters:

f - A frame containing initialization data for the object.

Returns:

A Java object, instance of the proper class (either the class returned by getClassForRole(), or one of its subclasses).